larger than moths, are famed for their
beauty all over the world. The delicacy of their structure, the
splendour of the colours in which they are habited, their poetical
diet, and the impossibility of keeping them alive in a confined state,
are the attributes of delicacy and beauty which have made them objects
of interest to all persons who have any insight to the mysterious
graces of animal organisation. So brilliant is the plumage of some of
the varieties, that they have been named after gems: thus, in the case
before which the visitor has arrived, he will find the garnet-throated
humming bird, and the topaz humming bird. Next to these brilliant
creatures of the south, in case 45 are the curious Australian honey
eaters, with their feathered tongues, made to brush the sweet essences
from flowers: and the two following cases contain the remaining
varieties of the slender-beaked family. Here are the Creepers of
Europe; the Nuthatches of North America and Europe; varieties of the
Wren; and the Warblers of Guiana and Patagonia. The visitor next
approaches the varieties of the family known as the tooth-beaked
perching birds. To this family our choicest songsters belong. They
fill five cases (48-52). The visitor will observe in the first of the
four cases, the tailor birds, remarkable for the fantastic domes they
form to their nests; the Australian superb warbler; and the Dartford
warbler of Europe. The common song birds of Europe are grouped here,
including blackcaps, wrens, the active little titmice, together with
the North American wood warblers. Next to these are cases (53-55) of
Thrushes, including the tropical ant thrushes; the Javan mountain
warbler; the Brazilian king thrush; the rock thrushes: the imitative
Australian thrush; the blackbird; the North American mimic thrush; the
Chinese and South American thrushes, celebrated for their babbling;
the yellow orioles, of Europe and the east; and here also are the
short-legged thrushes of the tropics.

The two next cases (56, 57) contain the Flycatchers, which catch
insects on the wing. The varieties to be seen here include the South
American pikas and shrikes, with their gay plumage. These
shrikes[2]--better known as butcher-birds--are so called from the
cruelty with which they treat their prey. In the second case of
flycatchers are grouped the true flycatchers, which are mostly from
the old world; those from America being the solitary flycatcher, the
black-headed flyc